Former Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa was on the losing end of a bid to bring Teach for America teachers to his new work location in the Cobb County School District.

Hinojosa is a big advocate of the TFA program, and in a story Wednesday by the Marietta Daily Journal, he said he would bring the proposal back to the Cobb County school board in the future.

“I will try again in the future depending on the success of our outreach efforts to garner the support we need,” Hinojosa told the Marietta Daily Journal. “We can do a better job of communicating with the staff and board of the benefits. I am a big fan of TFA as they have helped address achievement gaps in my previous assignment.”

Apparently, Hinojosa had indicated that private financing had been secured to bring 50 TFA teachers to Cobb County, where he is superintendent. But the Journal found that wasn’t true.

I noticed this Q&A that former DISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa conducted with the Marietta Daily Journal. Hinojosa left DISD this past summer to become superintendent in the Cobb County School District near Atlanta.

In the wide-ranging interview with the Journal, Hinojosa mentions that there is no reason why his school district should not be a top contender for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, an annual award given to urban districts who make big academic gains.

As you can recall, winning the Broad Prize was Hinojosa’s big goal while superintendent in Dallas ISD. He set a five-year timeline to do just that but the district never even made it to finalist status. We’ll see if he can capture the coveted prize in Cobb County.

Unfair Park found some interesting commentary by Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa on Monday during his tour of Cobb County School District, the suburban Atlanta district that named him the sole superintendent finalist.

“They disagree, but they’re much more professional in how they disagree,” Hinojosa told the paper. “Some of my board meetings are not that professional.”

Hinojosa also talked about the pressure he has felt to embrace charter schools in the district. The DISD board has created a charter school committee to study them, and Hinojosa and others have travel to Denver, Houston and Los Angeles to study charters there.

“Right now, the national funders are pushing Dallas to be involved in charters,” Hinojsa said. “I told them, ‘I don’t mind having a conversation, but I am not going to push this if my board doesn’t want to go there.’ My board. A body corporate. A majority of the board.”

Dallas ISD trustees have called for a board meeting Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the selection process for an interim superintendent. This comes days after Superintendent Michael Hinojosa was named the sole superintendent finalist in the Cobb County School District outside Atlanta.

When trustees get around to naming an interim superintendent, they could promote someone already in Dallas ISD. (Look at some possible candidates here.) But board members could also look outside the district for an interim. That’s what Richardson ISD did last year when its superintendent resigned.

The second part of Tuesday’s meeting will occur behind closed doors. During that part, trustees could discuss actual candidates for the interim job.

Trustee Eric Cowan told me Friday that board members will also discuss on Tuesday how they’ll work with Hinojosa during his time left in the district. He said it might be a challenge for Hinojosa to be effective in his final weeks.

In retrospect, Cowan writes, he sensed Hinojosa wasn’t up to the challenge in DISD. After all, Dallas ISD faces at least a $120 million cut each of the new two school years. That’s quite the challenge.

And Cowan said his sensed that in a recent private exchange with Hinojosa.

Cowan writes:

During a recent monthly meeting with the Superintendent, I asked if he was looking forward to the next few years and the challenges our District will face. In the split-second hesitation, I knew that Dr. Hinojosa would not finish his contract with DISD.

I just got word from Dallas ISD board president Adam Medrano that trustees will call a board meeting Tuesday night. They will discuss where Dallas ISD goes from here after Superintendent Michael Hinojosa announced Thursday night that he’s the lone superintendent finalist for the Cobb County School District outside Atlanta.

The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. We’ll let you know what’s on the agenda as soon as it’s posted.

Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa has been named the sole finalist for a Georgia school superintendent job.

The job is at the Cobb County School District, the state’s second largest with 106,000 students, The district’s board of education voted to offer him the job in a 7-0 vote at a board meeting Thursday night.
At a news conference Wednesday evening after the school board’s vote in Georgia, Hinojosa said: “I’m certainly flattered and honored that they would seek me out for this position. I was not seeking a position when they contacted me two weeks ago. The fact that they were interested in me is a complement to the Dallas Independent School District.”

He called the whirlwind courtship with Cobb County a “unique set of circumstances. It just fell into place.”

When contacted Thursday morning, none of the Dallas school board members reached knew anything about the Cobb County job.

Medrano said he first heard of the possibility from a reporter Thursday morning. Hinojosa informed him at 12:30 p.m. Thursday that he was “more than likely” a finalist for the Georgia position.

Trustee Bernadette Nuttall said Hinojosa told her that the Georgia district would make the announcement Thursday night.

She said that this is an indication that Hinojosa, 54, wants to leave Dallas. If Hinojosa leaves, it would come as Dallas ISD braces for a multimillion-dollar state-funding drop the next two school years.

“By Dr. Hinojosa’s actions, on two separate occasions, he has communicated to the community and the citizens and children of Dallas that he no longer wants to be superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District,” Nuttall said.

Medrano said he does not know where trustees go from here. Hinojosa’s exit means Dallas ISD has lost its top three administrators, including chief financial officer Larry Throm and chief of staff Arnold Viramontes, in the past five months.

Hinojosa, who became DISD superintendent in May 2005, lost his bid to lead Las Vegas-area schools in September, quickly signed a three-year contract extension in Dallas and vowed to stay. At the time, he said that his heart remained in Dallas, his childhood home.

“Now, I get to focus my energy for the next five years on the Dallas ISD,” Hinojosa said after losing his bid for the Las Vegas position. “Our best days are still ahead. There’s still much work to do.”

He said in September that he would not seek any other job opportunities.

“My name is off the market,” he said.

Medrano said he supported Hinojosa to stay in Dallas after his attempt to leave for Las Vegas.

“I was one of his supporters to keep him here,” Medrano said. “He did tell us that he would not be looking for a job elsewhere.”

Some Dallas community members have surmised that the district woes came as a result of decisions made by top administrators.

“It has been my personal opinion for the last two years that the troubles that are besetting the district are clearly a lack of direction and a lack of leadership from senior management, and I wish the superintendent the best of luck in his new position,” said education activist Mike MacNaughton, a member of the district’s Citizens Budget Review Commission.

The Cobb County School District began a search for new leader in February, months after Superintendent Fred Sanderson announced his leaving. Board chairwoman Alison Bartlett said the district was looking for someone to improve the suburban district.

“We wanted someone who was strong academically, someone who was a team builder and someone who can move our county to the next level in education,” Barlett said.

Barleett said that Sanderson currently receives a base salary of about $208,000 but also receives a retirement check from the state. She said that Cobb County superintendent job has never been among the state’s top paid educators.

Hinojosa currently makes $328,000 in Dallas.

“We are very fiscally conservative county,” said Barlett, adding that next superintendent will probably make around that same amount.

Cobb County board member David Banks wasn’t aware this morning who would be named superintendent, but he said the person might want to do some research before taking the job.